Fresh shock for mom

Thursday

Oct 11, 2012 at 12:01 AM

STOCKTON - The remains of murder victim JoAnn Hobson, excavated from a Linden well earlier this year and returned to her mother for cremation, were significantly mixed up with at least two others and possibly more.

Scott Smith

STOCKTON - The remains of murder victim JoAnn Hobson, excavated from a Linden well earlier this year and returned to her mother for cremation, were significantly mixed up with at least two others and possibly more.

So said an independent report made public Wednesday by Joan Shelley, Hobson's mother. Learning officials had given her improperly separated remains made her feel like a victim, she said.

"I am not mad," Shelley said. "I am in a rage over this."

Death row inmate Wesley Shermantine and his co-defendant, Loren Herzog, were long suspected in, but never convicted of, Hobson's death. Shermantine's tips led investigators to the well.

San Joaquin County sheriff's deputies in February unearthed the remains with a large excavator, drawing criticism for their indelicate approach.

The state's Bureau of Forensic Services next analyzed the remains.

Rather than cremate her daughter, who vanished in 1985 at age 16, Shelley said a twinge of uneasiness caused her to send the remains deputies gave her for further analysis.

On Sept. 12, Shelley received the forensic anthropology report prepared for her by Eric Bartelink, director of the Human Identification Laboratory at California State University, Chico. He performed DNA analysis on 28 bone samples.

Bartelink found that the use of large earth-moving equipment contributed to "significant commingling" of the skeletal remains, and that there may be those of more than the three people the state lab had initially identified, Bartelink said.

Prior DNA and forensic analysis by the state had revealed three people and a fetus. In addition to Hobson, the well held the remains of Kimberly Billy, 19, a third unidentified woman between the ages of 16 and 18, and the fetus.

Shelley said it is only right that she be given her daughter's remains, and other families be returned those of their own loved ones.

Shelley has retained San Luis Obispo attorney Mark Connely but has yet to decide what legal action, if any, to take next.

San Joaquin County Sheriff Steve Moore said he was taken aback upon learning of the possible commingling. His office relied on the state's Bureau of Forensic Services and an anthropologist from California State University, Stanislaus, Moore said.

"Our hearts go out to the family of JoAnn and all of the victims of Wesley Shermantine and Loren Herzog," said Moore, vowing to work with the FBI and other agencies to recover more remains.

"We are open to discuss any concerns the families may have," he said.

The state's Department of Justice, which oversees the Bureau of Forensic Services, did not respond to a request for comment on the report.

Jeff Rinek, a retired FBI agent who has assisted Shelley and her two other daughters in the analysis, had nothing kind to say about Moore's office.

"In my opinion from listening to (Shelley and her daughters), they consider that the sheriff re-murdered JoAnn," said Rinek, a strident critic of how Moore handled the excavation.

"Now, people can understand why it needed to be treated like a crime scene," he said.

The test results from Chico also revealed child-size bones among those Shelley received, which led him to notify the Hayward Police Department.

Investigators in Hayward have long sought answers to the 1988 disappearance of 9-year-old Michaela Garecht. Shermantine has suggested in a letter to The Record that Herzog may have abducted the girl.

Assemblywoman Cathleen Galgiani, who has pushed for ongoing searches for Shermantine and Herzog's victims, said the Chico report underscored a need for the FBI to take over the investigation.

"This is not a normal situation," she said. "We have not seen anything like this before. It is clear that the FBI must come in and take over."